Boys’ Brigade

The History of the Boys Brigade
Sir William Alexander Smith was a Sunday School teacher and an officer of the 1st Lanark Rifle Volunteers. He noticed the older boys in Sunday School were bored and restless and came up with the idea of organizing the boys into a volunteer brigade based on religion, drill and discipline. He founded the Boys’ Brigade on 4 October 1883 when he formed the 1st Glasgow Company at Free Church Mission Hall, North Woodside Road, Glasgow. The Boys Brigade was the first uniformed youth organization in the world.
By the late 1880’s the Boys Brigade grew rapidly in the United Kingdom and by the early 1890’s, it grew to be a worldwide organization and the forerunner of the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides.
(Source: The Boys’ Brigade in Malaysia Senior Section Handbook, 6th Edition 2004)

Emblem and Motto
The Motto of the Boys’ Brigade is ‘Sure and Stedfast’, taken from Hebrews 6: 19 (‘This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,’). The spelling of ‘Stedfast” was retained as found in the King James Version Bible. The cross is a symbol of the Christian faith.

Objective of the Boys’ Brigade
“The advancement of Christ’s Kingdom among members and the promotion of habits of Obedience, Reverence, Discipline, Self-Respect and all that tends towards a true Christian Manliness.”

Activities
The 1st Klang Boys’ Brigade Company meets on Saturday, 2.30 pm at the
Wesley Methodist School Klang, Jalan Dato Hamzah. The activities are as follows:-

Time	Activity
8.30 am	Roll call
8.50 am	Devotion
9.30 am	Badge Classes / Activities
11.30 am	Fall Out
5.30 pm- 6.30 pm	Games

The boys range from 7 to 19 years old. Recruitment commences in January and no new boys are accepted after February.

Company meetings are held from January until October and the year end camp is held in December. If there is school or public holiday on a Saturday, there is no company meeting.